The use of dynamic presentations and training sessions has long since been a part of the business world. Live presentations and training sessions allow an entity to efficiently convey information to employees, business partners, or other entities with which it conducts business. As technology advances, more of the presentations and training sessions are being recorded in a multimedia format to allow viewers to access the presentation or session at the convenience of the viewing individual, thereby, eliminating many timing and scheduling difficulties. Often times, multimedia presentations include full motion video presentations which are displayed via a central processing unit. Storage of pertinent multimedia presentations within the central processing unit enables a user to easily access the presentations or training sessions of interest for viewing.
Typically, multimedia presentations are recorded by a single fixed video camera. Recording of multimedia presentations by a single fixed camera can create problems as a presentation or training session often contains more than one dynamic, region of interest. Different regions of interest may be of interest to the user in varying degrees at different times. A single fixed video camera, however, is not capable of capturing the presentation or session from multiple viewpoints in order to fully capture each region of interest. In response to such problems, multimedia presentations can be recorded by multiple fixed cameras spaced from each other around a periphery of the subject to be videoed. Storing the video images from the multiple video camera viewpoints into the central processing unit allows the user to toggle between video camera views as needed to view the region of interest at a particular time.
Although use of multiple cameras allows for the recording of more regions of interest, problems typically occur when the user desires to switch the display from one camera viewpoint to another. Upon user input to change the view displayed, the video image abruptly switches from one camera viewpoint to the other. The abrupt change in viewpoint is distracting and depending upon the camera spacing and the particular region of interest, may not allow viewing of the entire area of interest. For example, one camera may capture a part of the region of interest while another camera captures a different part of the region of interest. As a result, although both cameras present a partial view of the region of interest, neither camera is capable of displaying the entire region of interest at a satisfactory angle for optimum viewing by the user.
In light of the above mentioned problems, it would be desirable to have a method and system for manipulating the camera viewpoint of the image as it is viewed. More particularly, a need exists for a method and system in which a user can view and interactively control the viewpoint of the dynamic scene allowing for smooth transitions between cameras and full coverage of regions of interest of the presentation or scene.